The Gunners face their toughest opponent on Wednesday when Liverpool comes to north London for Match Day #36.
The Reds already have the Premier League champion’s trophy on their mantel, so now they chase the record for most PL point in a season. The record of 100 points was set in 2017-2018 by Manchester City. To break that record, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool club needs to win their final three games. I think that’s a goal worth attaining, and Arsenal is their next obstacle.
So, with Liverpool chasing records, Arsenal is still chasing a European spot for next season, and the much needed financial boost that comes along with it.
With a crucial FA Cup semifinal match at Wembley on Saturday, what squad does Mikel Arteta put on the pitch v Liverpool tomorrow? The Gunners are currently ninth in the Premier League and need at least a sixth place finish to qualify for the Europa League, however, an FA Cup trophy would give Arsenal an automatic spot in the Europa League group stages. What will Arteta do? Which competition becomes the most important?
In my opinion, I would put all of my eggs in the FA Cup semifinal basket. At least in that competition the Gunners control their own destiny. In the Premier League, there are just too many factors that need to go Arsenal’s way for them to have any chance of finishing sixth or higher.
Here’s what the boss said about picking a side for Wednesday…
“I believe that it’s very important to have energy and momentum going into important matches, and in order to do that you have to go game by game. Today and tomorrow we will assess the players and how they are, and obviously they’ve been hit and a lot of them have played some crazy minutes up until now and again we’re going to have games every two and a half days. We will try to put the strongest team out as possible here and as well on Saturday, and to do that we need to know how everyone recovers from the game.”
With that said, here’s my projected starting XI v Liverpool…
[3-4-3]
Martinez
Kolasinac, Holding, Sokratis
Tierney, Torreira, Willock, Soares
Saka, Lacazette, Nelson
Projected final score…
Arsenal 1 – Liverpool 3
COYG, prove me wrong!
Gunner1953